CHOPIN Fantaisie-Impromptu | Nicolas BALDEYROU

Dear Friends, I hope you’re well as summer is in approach! I guess It will be the last Chopin video before holidays but I had so many demands, I couldn’t resist to record the famous Fantaisie-Impromptu opus 66! The Fantaisie-Impromptu was written in 1834, as were the Four Mazurkas (Op. 17) and the Grande valse brillante in E♭ major (Op. 18), but unlike these other works, Chopin never published the Fantaisie-Impromptu. Instead, Julian Fontana published it posthumously, along with other waltzes Opp. 69 and 70. It was unknown why Chopin did not release the Fantaisie-Impromptu. The mystery may have been solved in 1960 when pianist Arthur Rubinstein acquired the "Album of the Baroness d'Este" which had been sold at auction in Paris. The album contained a manuscript of the Fantaisie-Impromptu in Chopin's own hand, dated 1835, stating on the title page in French "Composed for the Baroness d'Este by Frédéric Chopin". Rubinstein surmises that the words "Composed for" in place of a dedication imply that Chopin received a paid commission for the work, so he had actually sold it to the Baroness. The arrangement was quite difficult as I wanted to keep the original C# Minor key but it had to be still playable on clarinets. Then I chose to use a piccolo clarinet in D, two clarinets in A, a bass and a contrabass, quite an unusual clarinet quintet! You can hear in this video a Buffet clarinet in D from the seventies (Vandoren BD5 mouthpiece and V12 3,5), a Buffet festival in A from the eighties (Vandoren BD4 mouthpiece V12 3,5), a Buffet Festival Green Line from 2010, a Buffet Tosca Bass (Vandoren B40 and 3,5 traditional reeds) and a Buffet Contrabass from 1935. I hope you'll like it and don't hesitate to give me ideas 😁 Take care and stay safe! ❤️ #chopin #fantaisieimpromptu #nicolasbaldeyrou